The surprise election of Donald Trump brought predictions in Houston's energy sector on Wednesday that the new president would cut regulations slowing energy development, clear paths for state and national pipeline projects and, perhaps, reinvigorate a sagging American coal industry.

Analysts labored on Wednesday to divine the effects of a Trump energy overhaul. Several estimated his election would be a quick boon to pipelines, power plants, and oil and gas production.

"There's now an imperative for sweeping deregulation in energy and an unfettered growth strategy," said Bill Herbert, a senior energy analyst at the investment research firm Piper Jaffray & Co.

Energy and power companies watched their stocks climb Wednesday.

Shares of Houston-based ConocoPhillips, the nation's largest independent oil producer, closed up 3 percent, or $1.40, to $45.73. Power company NRG Energy, also based in Houston, jumped 5 percent, or 56 cents, to close at $12.03 per share. And Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, a pipeline company with projects under federal scrutiny, soared 11 percent, or $3.71, to close at $37.08.

At the same time, renewable energy stocks faltered.

First Solar, an Arizona-based solar panel company, fell 3 percent, or 78 cents, to $29.50 per share. Solar City, which has operations in Houston, dropped 4 percent, or 84 cents, to $20.01.

The big picture

Trump's campaign has outlined broad goals: creating jobs, reducing regulation, curtailing energy imports, and drilling for more oil and gas. They aim to open federal lands to drilling, end the moratorium on federal coal leases, build American wealth and make the country energy-independent - eliminating "any need to import energy from the OPEC cartel or any nations hostile to our interests."

Environmental groups, stunned at the upset, vowed to fight any loosening of federal conservation standards.

"All Texans want clean air and water. That will never change regardless of who sits in the White House," Reggie James, director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, said in an email. "Our work continues to break fossil fuel's chokehold on our public agencies and government."

Clearer pipeline paths

The pipeline projects that came to capture the widespread opposition of environmental activists now have clearer paths forward.

Completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline that's opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and environmentalists is now more a matter of when, not if, said Brandon Blossman, an analyst at Houston energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

The nearly finished pipeline project is awaiting federal approval to cross the Missouri River and has been held up by the Obama administration. Energy Transfer Partners, which leads the project, said it's getting equipment in place to start horizontal drilling.

"Dakota Access remains confident that it will receive the easement … in a time frame that will not result in any significant delay in proceeding with drilling activities," Energy Transfer said in a prepared statement.

And Calgary-based TransCanada said Wednesday that the company is revisiting its Keystone XL project, which was proposed to draw oil sands crude from Alberta through Nebraska and was rejected by the Obama administration. The company is "evaluating ways to engage the new administration on the benefits, the jobs and the tax revenues this project brings to the table," TransCanada said.

Free trade issues

Energy trade associations widely praised Trump's election. Still, some Trump policies may be less popular in the energy sector. He has long railed against free trade and promised restrictions against it; energy companies often want more open borders for trade.

Energy industry observers said it was too soon to know how Trump will govern. Unlike some recent presidential candidates, Trump didn't release a detailed look at proposed policies.

"The short answer is nobody really knows what a Trump energy policy looks like," said Ken Medlock, senior director at Rice University's Center for Energy Studies. "He's been a black box on that front. Everybody's kind of throwing up their hands and saying, 'What's next?' "

Energy analysts on Wednesday counseled calm as the market worked through bumps; the Dow Jones industrial average fell by 800 points in late-night trading Tuesday before rallying Wednesday and closing up 257 points.

"We see nothing from the election result that alters our view of a tightening global oil market," which should eventually drive up oil prices, Tudor Pickering Holt analysts told clients.

The firm, however, did point out a few clues to divining a Trump presidency. This summer, Trump floated oil and gas investor and shale developer Harold Hamm as secretary of energy, the first oil executive in the Cabinet seat.

Trump also campaigned on reducing regulation. Maybe he'll bar the Environmental Protection Agency from using the Endangered Species Act to block development?

Tudor Pickering's morning note even paused for a lighthearted moment: Will gas pipelines to Mexico, the firm asked, go under or through his much-discussed wall on the border?